Mobile

Building Native iOS Apps on Windows

In what may be a welcome cross-platform development move for developers and users harboring a previous aversion to Apple's Objective-C programming language, Genuitec has released new MobiOne tools for Windows programmers to create App Store-ready iOS apps.

Genuitec's MobiOne is a development toolkit based on the WebKit browser that employs HTML5, CSS3, and JavaScript technologies. It supports iPhone and iPad app design and testing and includes iPhone and iPad emulators. The company contends that developers using MobiOne don't need to own a Mac, know Objective-C, or even know code at all.

"If a Windows users has enough skill to design a PowerPoint slide, they can design and build iPhone and iPad apps with ease," said Wayne Parrott, vice president of product development. "Web developers with HTML5 and CSS3 skills will see even greater productivity."

MobiOne uses drag-and-drop functionality similar to that which might be used to string together a PowerPoint presentation, but the technology has an engine that allows users to build iOS apps or web applications from the same code base. The engine inside MobiOne is Genuitec's AppCenter. Hosted in a cloud computing-driven environment, this provides an arena for testing both native and web apps in the private Genuitec cloud for access anywhere.

The AppCenter technology allows for testing of apps and web apps over the air (using iOS 4+) or through iTunes. Testing links can be shared via email or SMS for multiple device testing and previews. Previously, MobiOne supported a web app-only model that allowed the design of web applications that run on iOS devices. Now, users can design native apps or web apps with the same design files, using AppCenter.

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